We live therefore we eat! Budgeting and planning for food is necessary and without taking the time to plan, you could be blowing the bank on healthy food. The following are some ways to take ownership and conquer your food budget.
The key to saving money at the grocery store is to be a smart informed shopper. Remember that grocery stores stock lots of items that are made to appeal to people who want convenience over low prices. So you can save a lot of money by avoiding fast foods, frozen foods or “TV dinners” and buying the ingredients to make your own meals every day.
Being a smart shopper also means knowing when and where to shop and how to find the best value in food and grocery supplies at the store. Some core principles of smart shopping are…
If You Can Buy In Bulk – do it. Most items are cheaper at the unit cost level if you buy larger quantities. So if you can buy and store more food at once, you can take advantage of those savings. When you buy in large the seller will be pleased to give you a price skip because you have shown a great interest on what he has to offer.
Avoid Impulse Purchases. Stores carefully place items that are appealing so you will buy higher priced items. Work from a list and stick to your list. You must not be fooled by seductive advertisement and confusing adverts of products. You need to know what you want and stick to it with determination. This is because we are in the world of extortion (the act of getting things from someone in a tricky way); most adverts today will only promise what they will not do. What you need to do to prevent this situation is to have your ‘map of purchase’ with you and don’t deviate from it.
cheese yourself rather than buying pre-sliced cheese by yourself is a way of having a fun time while preparing your dishes. Consider doing it yourself will save you more cash because if you even do it by yourself you will able to cut it to your size taste.i.e. how small or big you want it to be.
Buy Fresh Produce. Fresh foods are not only better for you, they are cheaper. Just as you can never compare early morning weather (which is always cool, calm, serene, soothing and lovely) with afternoon weather that is hot, so also you cannot compare fresh food stuffs with other ones (dried or preserved), because it’s raw (new), at this time it’s fresh with fresh nutrients, minerals, natural content and natural taste at its best, that is why you should consider buying fresh food, even apart from been a means of saving money.
Know Your Town. Each grocery store has certain categories they do best at outselling the others. Know what stores are good with produce, with meat and with everyday savings and create your shopping lists accordingly. You need to know this because you will also be able to save some bucks on every spending you will make, that is why you need to do so.
Know Your Store. Each week, your store marks down certain items in preparation for the weekend. Routinely they will slash the prices of fresh meat to get rid of last week’s supply in preparation for the higher priced specials for this week. If you know when that stuff hits the shelves, you can score big savings and freeze what you buy to use over the next few weeks.
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Know your items
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Learn your price points of what is a good price for each item on your list. Try to buy under those price points so your budget is controlled.
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Buy store brands (AKA no name brands)
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These items are generally cheaper than the name brands.
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Use coupons
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Coupon clipping might seem like a chore, but those savings do add up.
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Leave the kids at home (if possible)
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Children will add dozens of items to your shopping cart and slow you down. Leave them out of the picture and you won’t have to buy their impulse items and the trip will go faster too.
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By being a smart shopper, you can stretch your food budget and see an impressive savings on what you spend on groceries. And that helps you stretch your savings which means extra funds to spend on what you enjoy!